If Ukraine's announced counter-offensive is successful and its forces reach the administrative border of the Crimean peninsula, Kyiv could seek a diplomatic solution with Russia instead of trying to retake it by force, an option that, although this, he does not rule out either. This idea, expressed by an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, would mean a change of attitude in what the Ukrainian Government has maintained until now: that there will be no peace until Russian troops leave all of Ukraine, including Crimea.
"If we manage to achieve our strategic goals on the battlefield, when we are on the administrative border of Crimea we are ready to open a diplomatic page to discuss this issue," said Andrí Sibiha, deputy head of the Office of President Zelenski in an interview with Financial Times published this Thursday. But he pointed out: "This does not mean that we exclude the liberation (of Crimea) by our army".
The statement by Sibiha, who is a diplomat, comes at a time when violent fighting continues in Bakhmut (Donetsk region), as it has been for months, with the Russians on the offensive and the Ukrainians holding the bastion. On Wednesday, Zelenski hinted again that his troops could withdraw if there was a risk of being surrounded by the Russians. Yesterday Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, who bear most of the weight of the Russian attack, assured that there is no sign that the Ukrainians are retreating. On the contrary, he asked for more support from the Russian regular army.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov also spoke about possible diplomatic contacts this Thursday. But to rule them out.
The press secretary of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was asked about the words of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who during his visit to China said that he has the help of Xi Jinping to bring Russia and Ukraine back to the negotiation table.
Peskov assured that there is currently no other alternative for Moscow than to continue the fighting. “Of course, China has a very effective and impressive capacity to provide mediation services. And the recent diplomatic successes have eloquently demonstrated this", he commented. Beijing's mediation has managed to get Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations.
"Based on the position, both official and unofficial, that they declare from Kyiv, for the moment there is no other way for us than to continue the special military operation," Peskov continued, using the euphemistic name with which Moscow refers to the war conflict.
The French president and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, began a three-day visit to China on Wednesday, April 5, one of the goals of which is to make China reconsider its cooperation with Russia and can mediate in the Ukrainian conflict.
In February, Beijing presented a draft peace plan with 12 very general points. For example, it included respect for the sovereignty of all countries, which could satisfy Ukraine, but also that the security of one country should not be guaranteed at the expense of others, which is to Russia's taste.
Moscow and Kyiv also maintain diametrically opposed positions on the territory that belongs to each of them. Ukraine maintains that peace requires the withdrawal of Russian forces from all its territory. Russia has signaled that its adversary must recognize "new realities", meaning it must give up the four regions it said it had annexed in September: Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south, Luhansk and Donetsk in the west. East. And, of course, also the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 in an operation that Kyiv considers illegal and that most of the international community does not recognize.
